petroleumworld

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 8:39 PM

Subject: Mr Mandel

Mr Mandel makes some good comments. However, he forgets Israel lives a
double standard. Only one nation in the middle east has had a successful
secret nuclear program. Only one nation in the middle east has been allowed
to expand territory and if one believes the Old Testament, this would be the
second time the Jewish semites have kicked the arab semites off their land
in 6000 years. The West looks down upon other monotheist states. If Canada
were to declare itself a Protestant nation by law and either explicitly or
implicitly treat other religions as second class citizens, it would be
decried by international organizations. There are two sides to every story.
We hear of arab terrorists, a student of history knows its two sided and I
bring your attention to a forgotten incident...(remember it was before
Israel was a state and the paramilitaries were fighting for a state).

The King David Hotel bombing was an attack carried out by the militant Zionist group Irgun,^[1]^[2] on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.^[3] The hotel was the site of the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and Headquarters of the British Forces in Palestine and Transjordan.^{[citation needed]} The attack, carried out on 22 July 1946, was the deadliest directed against the British during the Mandate era (1920-1948).

Disguised as Arabs, Irgunists planted a bomb in the basement of the main building of the hotel, under the wing which housed the Mandate Secretariat and part of the British military headquarters. Telephoned warnings were sent to the switchboard by the hotel's main lobby, the Palestine Post newspaper, and the French consulate. The Secretariat or military headquarters, which had separate switchboards, were not notified.^[4]^[5] No evacuation was carried out.^[4] The ensuing explosion caused the collapse of the western half of the southern wing of the hotel. 91 people were killed and 46 were injured, with some of the deaths and injuries occurring in the road outside the hotel and in adjacent buildings.^[4] Controversy has arisen over the timing and adequacy of these warnings and the reasons why the hotel was not evacuated.^[5]

In July 2006, Israelis, including the past and future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former members of Irgun, attended a 60th anniversary celebration of the bombing, which was organized by the Menachem Begin Centre. The British Ambassador in Tel Aviv and the Consul-General in Jerusalem protested, saying "We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated." They also protested against a plaque that claims that people died because the British ignored warning calls, saying it was untrue and "did not absolve those who planted the bomb." The plaque read "For reasons known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated.”^[31] To prevent a diplomatic incident, and over the objections of Reuven Rivlin of the Likud Party, who raised the matter in the Knesset, changes were made in the text, though to a greater degree in the English than the Hebrew version. The final English version says, "Warning phone calls has [sic] been made to the hotel, The Palestine Post and the French Consulate, urging the hotel's occupants to leave immediately. The hotel was not evacuated and after 25 minutes the bombs exploded. To the Irgun's regret, 92 persons were killed." The death toll given includes Avraham Abramovitz, the Irgun member who was shot during the attack and died later from his wounds, but only the Hebrew version of the sign makes that clear.^[28]

----- Original Message -----

From: brad parkes

To: editor@petroleumworld.com

Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 9:00 AM

Subject: Comments

Mr. Ohep I see you posted my email. I would like to add something, as I do not want my comments construed as supporting one side against the other (I find supporting any military campaign difficult), or have my comments viewed as anti-semetic for I take the definition of semetic as below

A member of a group of Semitic-speaking peoples of the Near East and northern Africa, including the Arabs, Arameans, Babylonians, Carthaginians, Ethiopians, Hebrews, and 1. Phoenicians.

2. A Jew.

3. Bible. A descendant of Shem (The children of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Aram, Arpachshad and Lud, in addition to daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs, was one of the descendants of Arpachshad...Semitic is still a commonly used term for the Semitic languages, as a subset of the Afro-Asiatic languages, denoting the common linguistic heritage of Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, Ethiopic, Hebrew and Phoenician languages

http://www.answers.com/topic/semite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shem